With the long-awaited world cup coming up in the unorthodox month of December, it invites the common debate that fans across the country will have, which right back starts for England? For me its not even worth a debate, Trent Alexander Arnold should be the only person in that role but not everyone agrees with me.
We have seen Trent single handily recreate the right back position himself with Liverpool, with his side winning a champions league, premier league, and league cup all in the last three years. With Liverpool also challenging for the quadruple it is more than fair to say he plays a big role in their success.
That’s not to discredit Reece James or Kyle Walker though, they have also been pivotal in helping their teams’ have European and domestic success in the last 18 months.
So why the debate?
The common argument is that Trent can’t defend and with Kyle Walker’s speed and James’ defensive awareness many think the Liverpool born defender should be left on the bench.
With Gareth Southgate deploying his usual five at the back with a wingback system this plays into Trent’s hands a lot more. It allows Walker or James to play as a right sided centre back as they comfortable in that role. He is the most effective going forward with 12 assists this premier league campaign in comparison to Reece James with 7 and Kyle Walker with two. He also has the most big chances created between the three with 18.
Trent has been questioned defensively in the past but the idea that he can’t defend is slowly becoming a false reality. He has 17 clean sheets in comparison to Walker who has 10 and James who has 5. He is also top in the leader board with the greatest number of clearances (33).
That being said, James and Walker are both very good at their position but in order for England to flourish offensively and score goals, Trent has to start.
The website I got this information from was the premier league official website where all the statistics are collected from professional data analysts, allowing me to compare the three players because of the information provided.
It’s a trustworthy source because I know that its Official Premier League performance data is gathered by Opta, which is part of part of Stats Perform company.
Live data is collected by a three people in each match. Two highly trained analysts use a visual-based collection system to congregate information on what happens each time a player touches the ball, they look at the player it was and the location of where it took place on the pitch
A quality control analyst also watches back the video feed and dissects it frame-by-frame in order to make sure that the information being displayed online is as accurate and truthful
